Microsoft to acquire GitHub for $7.5 billion

Cliff S said:

Oh and here: https://www.change.org/p/microsoft-s...-buying-github

Hahah, I love the fake petition counter.

Ground Sloth said:

Microsoft says that they're all in on open source. So when is the source code of Windows 10 going to be posted on GitHub?

slicendice said:

Lol, not gonna happen.

Cliff S said:

Oh c'mon!
Sheesh!

They just published the source code for Windows 3 file explorer, with WinFile: Release WinFile v10.0 - Sharing 10 years of improvements · Microsoft/winfile · GitHub
What more do you greedy geeks want?

Perhaps the 'greedy geeks' would like to play with PowerShell for every platform?

https://github.com/PowerShell

You want Windows source code? Well, you can have a look at NT....

https://github.com/Zer0Mem0ry/ntoskrnl

Ground Sloth said:

Microsoft says that they're all in on open source. So when is the source code of Windows 10 going to be posted on GitHub?

Microsoft will be 100% in favor of open source for other people's software, but not for theirs.

larc919 said:

Microsoft will be 100% in favor of open source for other people's software, but not for theirs.

Well said and I believe this to be true.

Kari said:

This is good news, as long as GitHub users are not forced to sign in with a Microsoft account.

Wouldn't bother me all that much. I use it (my Microsoft ID) for so much now what's one more site. I think I get where your coming from though. If your strictly Linux etc your not going to want to have to create a Microsoft ID just to use it. I actually use GitHub quit a bit on the Raspberry Pi side of things. I don't think I've ever gone there for anything Windows Related? I really hope Microsoft doesn't do something really stupid and alienate a whole user base.

Steve C said:

Perhaps acquiring GitHub will improve Microsoft's software QA standards?

That was a good one

alphanumeric said:

I really hope Microsoft doesn't do something really stupid and alienate a whole user base.

It's the only thing MS excels at these days.

Steve C said:

Perhaps acquiring GitHub will improve Microsoft's software QA standards?

Given MS' record, with W10 updates/upgrades & W7 updates over the last 12 months, GitHub will be turned into a total disaster area.

Also I expect stuff like this will mysteriously vanish.

Interesting Blog post from By Jim Zemlin (June 7, 2018) The Linux Foundation: Microsoft Buys GitHub: The Linux Foundations Reaction - The Linux Foundation

So what does this mean for open source? I expect generally good things. Microsoft has the means and the expertise to make GitHub better. They brought in Nat Friedman as GitHub’s CEO, someone I have known for years and has been well-respected in the open source community for a couple decades. Nat is clear that Microsoft is walking their talk stating, “I’m not asking for your trust, but I’m committed to earning it. I can’t wait to help make the GitHub platform and community that’s special to all of us even greater.” I believe he means it.

Should the open source community be concerned? Probably not. Buying GitHub does not mean Microsoft has engaged in some sinister plot to “own” the more than 70 million open source projects on GitHub. Most of the important projects on GitHub are licensed under an open source license, which addresses intellectual property ownership. The trademark and other IP assets are often owned by a non-profit like The Linux Foundation (see the Kubernetes example above). And let’s be quite clear – the hearts and minds of developers are not something one “buys” – they are something one “earns” (see Nat’s quote above).

Why would Microsoft do this? It seems simple to me. Steve Ballmer was half right with his famous “developers, developers, developers” cheer (worth a re-watch here.) He just didn’t factor in the “open source” developers that he famously discounted. Satya Nadella has righted that oversight in a spectacular way this week. Microsoft has always loved developers and wants to make a business of providing developers with great tools in order to help them to create great technology. It is literally their mission on the about page of their web site: “To empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.” Today more than 28 million of those developers are on GitHub.